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Speaking to a roomful of artists, art teachers and art administrators Tuesday, Duval County Superintendent Nikolai Vitti reiterated a promise he made in January to put renewed emphasis on art and music education.

“They need to be part of the curriculum for everybody,” Vitti told a leadership breakfast sponsored by St. John's Cathedral. “They shouldn’t be things that just gifted programs do, that only magnet schools do.”

Vitti was part of a panel that was moderated by Kimberly Hyatt, executive director of the Cathedral Arts Project, and included Jackie Cornelius, principal of Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, and Marcelle Polednik, director of the Museum of Contemporary Arts Jacksonville.

Vitti said he recently attended “Extravaganza,” an annual showcase of performances and art by Douglas Anderson students. He said he was “blown away” but “went away a bit saddened” that contemporary education too often “stifles that creativity.”

“What has happened with the emphasis on standardized testing is that we focus on basic skills and everything becomes about a test,” he added.

Hyatt quoted PabloPicasso that “every child is an artist.”

She said studies show that almost all kindergarten students are good at divergent thinking, a thought process used to generate creative ideas. But by age 10 only 32 percent remain good at it and by age 15 only 10 percent are still masters of divergent thinking.